chapter sixty three — misery loves company
[ season three, episode sixteen ]
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Emily poured some of the drink that was in the teapot into a cup and sniffed it. "What is this?" she asked, looking towards a sickly Aria before getting up and giving it to her. Aria hummed. "Some kind of herb thing. It's Meredith's cure-all recipe. Thank you." Aria responded.

Josie didn't understand why Meredith was looking after Aria. "I don't think It's working. You look terrible." Spencer said, causing Aria to look at her. "Thank you." Aria deepened, causing Josie to snicker. Aria put the teacup onto the table next to her. "Oh, god. I couldn't have picked a worse time to get sick." Aria sighed. "Have you heard from your dad?" Josie asked as a door opened. 

"He left a message, but I haven't talked to him since he left for his conference." Aria responded as Hanna walked into the living room. "Hey. How's the patient?" she asked, sitting at the end of the couch by Aria's feet. "Not great." Emily responded. "Well... I brought over everything that helps me when I'm sick." Hanna said, opening her bag. "Trash," she said, giving Aria a stack of Magazines. "Ginger Ale." she added, putting the bottle on the coffee table. "And three seasons of 'saved by the bell'." she finished, making the girls laugh.

"Thank you, Hanna." Aria said as Hanna put the dvd's on the coffee table. "Are you sure you want to stay here by yourself?" Spencer asked. "No, guys, I'm fine." Aria responded. "You don't look 'fine'." Hanna said. "So I've heard." Aria responded. "Are you sure you don't want us to drive you to your moms?" Josie asked, frowning. "No, it's her week with Mike, so the guest room's already taken and besides, I promised Meredith that I wouldn't tell her about Ali's diary until we talk to my dad, so If I just stay away from her, it's easier to keep that a secret." Aria responded.

"I can't believe we're trusting Meredith," Hanna scoffed. "I think she's really just as devastated as I am." Aria responded. "You're not giving her the pages, right?" Hanna asked. "No, no, they're hidden in a safe place, and they'll stay there till my dad gets home. Then we'll give him the chance to tell us the truth." Aria answered. "What if he doesn't?" Josie asked. "I don't wanna believe that my dad could have hurt Ali." Aria responded. "But if he did do it... this is a family secret that I can't keep." Aria added.

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"How's Aria?" Richie asked, as they sat at a table in the front of the school. "Not great. She's really sick." Josie responded as she highlighted something in her textbook that she needed. "I hope she gets better." Riche responded before his phone went off, and he took it out of his jacket, and read the message before putting it back into his pocket, and Josie watched with narrowed eyes.

"Who was that?" she asked, and he looked at her and smiled. "Oh, uh, just my mom." he lied, and she had a feeling he wasn't being truthful. "Hey, i've gotta go, i've gotta get something out of my locker, but i'll see you later," he said, kissing her head before getting up, grabbing his leftovers and heading back into the school. "Weird." she muttered.

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After school, Richie and Paige were at a cafe, at the register, waiting for their coffee and Caleb's, making idle chit chat when Richie noticed Caleb walk in and they nodded at each other in greeting. Once they got their coffee, the two of them joined Caleb at the table, handing him his. "Thanks for meeting me. I'm sorry you two had to lie to Hanna and Josie." Paige said. "Some lies are worth the risk." Caleb responded.

"It took me and Emily so long to get to a place where we could trust each other. If she knew we were doing this–" Paige said. "Same with Hanna," "Yeah I know, Josie as well." Caleb and Richie responded. "They'd find a way to stop us." Richie added. "I've been running scared since the lighthouse, getting more afraid every day. Then the other night I realized, I'm not scared for me– I'm afraid for Emily," Paige explained.

"She's been dealing with this for so long it's almost like she's numb to how dangerous it is." she added. "Yeah." Richie responded, knowing the feeling. "We know that Mona has people watching their every move, but there's no way that she has someone watching all of us all the time. So while the girls are playing sitting duck, I'm ready to circle the pond and–" Caleb started.

"Nail her psychotic butt to the wall." Paige added. "Yeah, something like that." Caleb responded. "Okay. So, before she went to Radley, Mona had, like all the girl's secrets, locked away in a motel room— they were her trophies." Richie explained. "Her prized possessions." Paige remarked and he nodded. "That's what she used to keep the girls from going to the cops." Caleb said.

"So if we find her trophy room, we can put an end to this." Paige said and the boys nodded. "But guys, I don't think we should underestimate her, she was Hanna's best friend when she was 'A' and she ran her over with a car." Richie warned and they nodded.

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Josie, Emily and Spencer were over at Hanna's, she was telling them about the incident that happened when she went for the interview after school. "Corin moved her store to Society Hill a month ago." Spencer explained as she looked up the women that Hanna was supposed to meet. "Did you tell Mona you applied for a job there?" Josie  asked.

"No, I applied months ago online. She's just doing this to get back at me for cutting her off." Hanna responded. "No, It wasn't her. I saw her at school around four." Emily said. "Then it was her minion." Spencer said after she shut her laptop and turned to the girls and sat on the ottoman at the end of the bed, taking Hanna's phone to read the 'A' message.

BLOCKED ID
Next time you'll be left  
faceless
⎯ A

"Is she threatening to cut your face off?" Spencer asked, confused. "Or throw acid at her." Emily remarked. "You guys, come on." Hanna complained. "Should we give this key to the cops?" Emily asked. "There's a numerical code on it. Maybe they could trace it." she added. "Yeah, even if they could trace it though, are you ready to talk about Mona 2.0? That's what we would have to do if we turned it in." Spencer asked.

"For all we know, It's not just Mona and her minions, she could have a whole damn army." Josie responded. "We still don't know what her endgame is." Emily added. "I do. It's to cut my face off." Hanna said, rolling her eyes. "I get it, I hear you guys, but she still has all those pictures of us at Ali's grave." Spencer said. "You know what? I don't care anymore. She has to be stopped." Hanna said.

"You're right. But this decision is going to affect all of us. Aria has to be in on it too." Spencer said. "Has anyone talked to her today?" Emily asked and Josie shook her head 'no'. "I tried her phone but all I get is voicemail." Spencer responded. "Me too. She's probably still sleeping." Hanna responded. "Let's just wait. We'll talk about it in the morning." Spencer said holding her hand out for the 'A' key, Emily handed it to her.

"I gotta get ready for tonight." Spencer said, standing up from the ottoman, "Spence, have fun tonight. We'll worry about all this tomorrow." Emily said. "Thanks." Spencer responded. "If you really want to surprise Toby, have on five-inch heels and nothing else when he walks through the door." Hanna suggested, making Josie cringe as Spencer gave her a look. "What? I've heard guys like that." Hanna said. "Thanks for the tip." Spencer responded before walking out of Hanna's room and Emily gave Hanna a curious gaze, but Hanna just smiled and looked anywhere else.

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"Still hurts?" Josie asked as she, Hanna and Emily walked through town. Hanna groaned. "Yeah, a little." she responded. "Kyle Bown, on the boys swim team, he can bend his wrist all the way to his arm, and it doesn't even hurt him. I think he's double jointed." Emily said. "And you're telling us this because?" Hanna asked as they made their way to the door to the Pharmacy, but stopped when they heard Meredith's voice.

"What do you mean you can't refill it?" they heard her ask, making them step back, out of the doorway to the window to watch the conversation. "You refilled this prescription last week." the guy at the front desk responded. "Yeah, I know, but I... misplaced my pill bottle." Meredith responded. "I'm sorry, ma'm. Clonazepam is a class 3 medication. You can ask your doctor to call in another prescription." the guys explained.

"I don't have time to call my doctor. I need those pills now." she demanded making Josie furrow her brows. Meredith sounded really desperate. "There's nothing we can do for you tonight, we're closing in a few minutes." the guy said to her as the girls shared a look of confusion. "Great. That's just great." she sneered before looking around, making the girls move out of view, but where they could still see her.

They watched as Meredith looked at a pile of Antihistamine, grabbing five boxes of it and slamming them down on the counter. "Ring me up." she demanded, and the guy did as instructed. Josie grabbed her phone out of her pocket and searched up Clonazepam. "It says Clonazepam is most commonly used for Anxiety, but some people also use it to help them sleep." Josie read out.

"Either Meredith is a major insomniac, or she's trying to knock out a cow." Hanna remarked before they looked back into the Pharmacy, once they noticed Meredith walking out, they turned their backs, so she wouldn't notice them. "I do not like the idea of that woman nursing Aria back to health." Hanna commented, "I'm calling her again." Emily said before clicking Aria's contact. "Straight to voicemail." Emily said, taking the phone away from her ear.

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Hanna, Emily and Josie had decided to head to Aria's later that night, to check in on her after what they saw Meredith do. The girls quickly got out of her car, before heading up to the front door of the Montgomery house. Hanna knocked on the door, but no one answered. "She has to be here." Hanna said, looking at Emily and Josie. "Aria!" Emily yelled out, "Aria are you in here?" Josie yelled out but no one was coming to the door, or yelling back. The girls walked toward the back of the house, "Here's the key," Hanna said before unlocking the door with it, letting themselves inside Aria's house.

The couch still had a pillow and blanket on it, and the things Hanna had brought were still on the coffee table. "Aria?" Hanna called out after Emily had shut the door behind them. "Where is she?" Josie asked, worried when suddenly the lights went out. "Come on," Emily said, leading Josie and Hanna through the hospital. They made their way to the stairs leading to the second story of the house. "Aria?" Josie called out, but no response, again.

The three shared a look before they hesitantly walked up the stairs, making their way to Aria's room, opening the door, to see no one there. "She's not here." Emily said, worried. "I'm calling her." Hanna said, quickly clicking on the 'call' option for Aria's contact, when they heard the vibrating, they jumped to see Meredith behind them. "Meredith?" Hanna asked, confused. "What are you girls doing out in this storm?" she asked.

"Where is Aria?" Josie asked instead of answering. "She went down to the basement to look for some flashlights." Meredith answered. Then why do you have her phone Josie thought. "She has been down there a little while. Maybe we should check on her." she added before walking out of Aria's room, the girls following her, hesitantly.

They followed Meredith back down the stairs onto the ground level of the house, Emily looked over her shoulder and looked at Josie and Hanna before Meredith led them to the basement, opening the door for them. "Aria? Are you down here?" Hanna called out from the top of the steps, following Emily and Josie when suddenly the basement door shut and locked, making them turn to see no Meredith, meaning she shut them down there.

"Oh, my god. It's locked." Emily gasped as she tried the doorknob before Hanna and Josie started banging on the door. "Hang on." Emily said, grabbing a flashlight from the steps, and turning it on. "Hanna. Josie." Emily said, as she shined the flashlight somewhere. "What?" they asked. "I don't think we're alone down here." Emily whispered to them, scared.

The three of them slowly made their way down the stairs, shining the flashlight everywhere, till it landed towards the floor, showing them Aria passed out on the ground. "Oh god." Josie gasped, quickly walking down the stairs to check on her. "Aria? Aria are you okay?" Hanna asked as Emily and Josie started shaking her, trying to wake her up. "Wake up, wake up. Aria!" Hanna remarked, worried.

Josie looked up, hearing footsteps upstairs, meaning Meredith was walking around. "Wake up!" Josie exclaimed to Aria. "Aria." Emily said, still shaking her as the girls shared worried looks. Soon enough she woke up and her and Hanna were sitting on the bottom of the steps, as Emily and Josie paced. "It's gonna be okay, Aria." Hanna said, trying to comfort her. "No, it's not. You guys don't get it. She lost it, she's crazy." she responded as they heard more footsteps upstairs. "Yeah, we got that." Josie responded.

"What is she doing up there?" Aria asked. "If Spencer was here, she'd say that she was pacing while she plots her way to get rid of us." Emily responded. "And she'd probably be right." Hanna remarked. "Okay. so there's four of us and one of her, let's give her the pages and then we'll take her down," Emily planned. "Take her down?" Aria asked. "Yeah, I have no problem opening a can of whoop-ass on that woman." Hanna responded  and Josie nodded in agreement when they heard a car approaching outside.

Josie walked up to the window in the basement and looked out as the sound of the car door opening and closing sounded out. She was shocked to see Mr. Montgomery, she turned to her friends. "It's your dad Aria." she said. "He–He wasn't supposed to be home till tomorrow." Aria stuttered in response. "She must have called him." Hanna theorised. "Is he in on this?" Emily asked. "I don't know what I believe anymore." Aria responded.

Suddenly, Emily grabbed a golf club. "Em, what are you doing with that?" Hanna asked. "We don't know what they're planning." Emily responded. "No, my dad would never hurt us." Aria protested. "Aria?" Byron's voice called from behind the locked basement door. "Are you sure about that?" Hanna asked her, grabbing a pipe from the floor while Josie grabbed another golf club as they all moved to stand instead of sitting on the steps, Emily turning the lights off.

The basement door opened and they could see Aria's dad standing in the doorway. "Aria?" He called down to the basement again before he began walking down the stairs slowly and Josie tightened her grip on her golf club as he reached them. "Are you okay?" he asked, stopping once he saw that the girls had weapons. "You don't need to be afraid of me." he said to them. "I swear. I– I didn't hurt Alison." he insisted before he started explaining what happened that night. "I was prepared to tell your mom the truth. Then Alison went missing. And the longer she stayed missing, the harder it became for me to tell anyone." he explained.

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After that, the girls left, knowing Aria was safe, and that she wasn't in any danger. Josie walked into her bedroom to see Richie asleep on her bed, an old horror movie playing on her tv, making her smile. She quickly changed out of her clothes into her pyjamas and climbed into the bed, altering Richie to her presence, and he rolled over, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Everything okay?" he asked, sleepily. She had called him, telling him that she'd be late and that he should wait at her house for her. "Yeah. Aria's okay, her dads home now so," she trailed off resting her head on Richie's chest, closing her eyes, tired. "I'm glad," Richie responded sleepily before the couple fell asleep, the sound of the movie in the background, lulling them to sleep.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapter <3 | richie finally getting his own part in the storyline !!